(i) Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a new collar support for a lamp shade. More precisely, the invention relates to a light fixture assembly equipped with a sleeve supporting a lamp shade improved in structure and in operation, the assembly being extremely simple while being resistant to vibrations.
(ii) Description of the prior art
The light fixing assembly according to the present invention includes a number of basic elements known in the prior art:
a standard socket connectable to a source of electric power for receiving and passing electric current to a light bulb;
a sleeve having a cylindrical opening, the sleeve being rigidly mounted around the socket to conceal and protect it while at the same time supporting a lamp shade or a reflector;
a fixation collar forming an integral part of the lamp shade or of the reflector, this collar being sized to allow its insertion into the cylindrical opening of the sleeve; and
means for rigidly but removeably fixing the lamp shade or the reflector to the sleeve by the fixation collar.
This basic structure is, in itself, well known in lamp technology and has been the object of very numerous developments over the years as non-restrictively exemplified in Canadian patent No. 130,411 of 1910 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,539,746 of 1951 and 4,426,677 of 1984.
In these three patents, the only means described or suggested for rigidly fixing the lamp shade or the reflector to the sleeve are small screws, usually threefold, disposed at 120.degree. intervals around the sleeve.
Though these screws may be efficient in retaining the lamp shade or the reflector to the sleeve, they do however suffer two major inconveniences. Firstly, they often spoil the esthetic quality of the lamp inasmuch as the heads of the screws are necessarily on the outside and thus visible. Furthermore, these screws tend to come undone when the lamp is fixed to a vibrating structure like, for example a ceiling ventilator.
In attempting to solve this last problem, ideas of varying ingenuity have been put forward. Here, reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,743,847 of 1930; 1,769,481 of 1930 and 2,057,361 of 1936. It is however noteworthy that the fixation means described in these patents, mentioned here as non restrictive examples, do not retain the lamp shade or the reflector collar in the sleeve in a rigid manner. In fact, what is shown is merely a comparatively loose retention of one in the other.
German patent No. 827,930 describes a fixation means for a lamp shade or a reflector next to a support sleeve comprising at least three fingers held together by a ring. These arms, which have a certain elasticity, act as a sprung pincer by engaging a lip provided on an upper circumference of the lamp shade or the reflector in order to retain this latter. This fixation system which is of the "snap-on" type is very efficient because it allows easy installation and removal of the lamp shade or the reflector while retaining either solidly once clamped in position. This apparatus has however its own inconveniences, it being relatively complicated structurally and of minimal esthetic value.
The present invention is based on the discovery that all the above-mentioned inconveniences can be easily avoided if one uses a "clip-on" type fixing means for rigidly attaching the reflector or lamp shade to the sleeve by means of a fixation collar on the lamp shade or the reflector.